CAW, GM make progress on labour agreement as Chrysler talks lag

CAW auto talks: CAW, GM progress on labour pact as Chrysler talks lag

The Canadian Auto Workers appeared to be narrowing in on a new labour pact with General Motors Wednesday. But negotiations with Chrysler, while still constructive, were travelling at a much slower pace, the union said.

By Wednesday afternoon, GM was still working through some local issues before the automaker could present a formal proposal to the CAW’s leadership based on the pattern established by the union’s new tentative agreement reached with Ford Motor Co. earlier this week, said Peter Kennedy, the union’s national secretary-treasurer.

Mr. Kennedy said he was not sure whether the union would be able to get a deal with GM Wednesday, or whether negotiations would continue into Thursday.

“It’s possible,” he said in an telephone interview. “But I’m not sure that all of these other issues can get resolved by this afternoon.”

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“They may go into the evening, in which case we might be looking at late tonight or tomorrow,” he added.

The issues holding up the GM talks are mostly at the local level, and include workplace issues, he said. But once those are resolved, he believed a formal proposal would follow.

The negotiations with Chrysler are not, however, as advanced as with GM, he said. Most of the discussions with Chrysler remain at the subcommittee and local level, he said.

“They’re not saying this, but I sense they are waiting to see where GM ends up,” Mr. Kennedy said. “My sense is that they’re waiting to see — and hoping to see — that there’s a significant deviations from the pattern with General Motors that would then give them an opportunity to capitalize on that.”

“On the other hand, if GM comes down with the pattern, they’ll be left isolated because we’ll have deals with the other two signed to the pattern,” he added.

Mr. Kennedy said he didn’t want to speculate, but figured it may be a few more days until the CAW was able to get a deal with Chrysler.

“When we get a deal with GM — if we get a deal with GM — whether it’s tonight, tomorrow, or the next day, and we have our first real constructive meeting with Chrysler after that, then I would be much more able to predict,” he said. “My view today, if all things go well, it would be by the end of the week.”

Meanwhile, the CAW is preparing a ratification vote for the new four-year agreement with Ford this weekend. The results of that vote are expected Sunday.

Mr. Kennedy said he was optimistic that deals could be reached with the other two automakers this week and that ratification votes could be held next week sometime on them.

“Ultimately, we would like to see it all wrapped by next weekend at the latest,” he said.

But the union has reserved the right to serve 24-hour strike notice at either GM or Chrysler if it feels the talks are no longer progressing after it granted them both an extension to the talks ahead of its strike deadline at 11:59 p.m. Monday night.